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Blog tour, Excerpt and Giveaway! Heart Knot Mine by Lily Velden

Title: Heart Knot Mine

Author: Lily Velden

Genre: gay romance, contemporary

Length: novel

Publisher: DreamSpinner Press

Despite a successful college teaching career, Noah Daniels has become depressed. He feels heís leading a monochromatic life: love has eluded him. When heís offered a chance to teach in London as part of an exchange program, he accepts, hoping a change of scenery will do him good. But once heís there, his outlook on love and sexuality changes in ways he never expected.

Robert Callinan is Noahís English counterpart in the program. The men exchange not only their jobs, but also their homes, and it is what Noah stumbles across while staying at Robertís house that sends him on a journey of self-discovery ó both mentally and physically. A journey that puts color back into his lifeÖ just not in the way he expected. When the exchange program ends, Noah has to go home, but he doesnít know if he wants to return to the life he left behind.

Excerpt:

THE KEY baffled me.

I’d found the soul mate, the yin to the yang, for every other key on the ring. But for three days I’d explored the house and not discovered the home of the small ornate brass mystery. Its elusiveness bothered me. I found myself wondering about it at the oddest times, like when I was exploring the city or training at the tae kwon do club I’d found less than a mile from my front doorstep. It nagged at me when I rode the Tube, and at night when I brushed my teeth. It stood out on the ring, its intricate Celtic design drawing my attention every time I handled the keys. It was impossible to ignore. It might have been small in comparison to its more utilitarian cousins, but its very uniqueness made it large in my eyes. Perhaps for that reason, I felt the need to find its home.

I rolled a sip of red wine around inside my mouth before tipping my head back and letting it slide down my throat. I wondered what I should do for the evening. Pondering my options, I carried my plate to the kitchen and quickly washed it. After drying my hands on a hand towel, I pulled aside the curtain and looked outside. Seeing the steady rain, I sighed. The foul weather made my decision for me. A night in it was. Maybe it was time to check out Robert’s DVD collection.

Sauntering up the stairs to the master bedroom with its huge king-size bed, I paused just inside the door, my gaze on the large flat-screen TV—Robert obviously liked to watch movies while lying in his mammoth bed. The state-of-the-art modernity of the unit was in direct contrast to the antique Chinese sideboard upon which it rested. The cabinet was beautiful: long and dark, with three sets of double doors decorated with delicately painted birds and blooms in creams, greens and gold.

After placing my glass of wine on the bedside table, I strode to the sideboard, and upon opening the first set of doors, one glance informed me the DVDs were arranged alphabetically. I ran my gaze over the titles and removed one or two possibilities before moving to the second set of doors and doing the same.

The final set of doors stopped me in my tracks. There, on the bottom shelf, was an old-fashioned lockable box. As soon as I saw it, I knew I’d finally found the home of my mystery key.

Considering where he kept the box, and its size and shape, I surmised it housed his porn collection. The fact he kept it under lock and key intrigued me. Was it to keep it safe from the prying eyes of his cleaning lady, who I had yet to meet? Or was it because it was one hell of a deviant collection? My curiosity got the better of me, and I quickly retrieved the keys. Surely, had it been off-limits, he’d have removed the key from the ring?

All the labels were handwritten. Labels I didn’t read. Labels I only glanced at.

With the wisdom of hindsight, that observation should have told me they were home movies.

About the author

Lily Velden lives on the east coast of Australia, her family having emigrated from Holland when she was a child.

Sheís both a left and right brain person, holding qualifications in both Finance and Fine Arts. She tells her friends that her way with numbers will make her a profitable artist and writerÖ one day.

Lily has always had a love of language and a beautifully crafted sentence, and admits to having a fetish for collecting quotes, poems, and song lyrics. What she wonít admit to is how many notebooks sheís filled with those quotesÖ Her fascination carries on into her artworks where she often incorporates text. When a shoulder injury slowed down her art practice she decided to explore her love of the written word more fully and began writing. ìIíll paint my pictures with words.î

Not that sheís abandoned artmaking in its entiretyóLily collaborates on the designs for all her book covers.

There are many things Lily loves, here are just a few of the PG rated ones: a good laugh (all the better if caused by a naughty joke), the smell of freshly baked goods and mown grass, a smile from a stranger, rainbows after the rain, and witnessing a promise kept.